WELSH stars joined the thousands pounding the streets of London in yesterday's marathon as they pushed through the pain barrier to raise money for charity.

WELSH stars joined the thousands pounding the streets of London in yesterday's marathon as they pushed through the pain barrier to raise money for charity.

EastEnders' Charlie Brooks, who plays Janine Butcher, ran the race for Marie Curie Cancer Care and was cheered along by her family.

Brooks, who was brought up in Barmouth,

said during the race "I'm not too bad. I saw a lot of my family around the 13-mile mark."

She joked that despite her character in EastEnders pushing her husband off a cliff she had received a positive crowd reaction.

"Thank God it's a flat marathon and that there are no cliffs," she quipped.

The soap star was joined in the event by Welsh soccer team manager Mark Hughes who ran the 26-odd miles.

The former Manchester United star ran the course in the unrelenting rain to raise money for the Wishbone Trust.

They were not the only celebrity faces in the 24th London Marathon, with Jonny Lee Miller, Richard Dunwoody, Iain Duncan Smith, Nell McAndrew, Sir Ranulph Fiennes, Charles Ingram, Lord Archer and Gordon Ramsay all tasking part in the gruelling event.

The celebrity race was won by Emmerdale's Tony Audenshaw, who plays Bob Hope in the soap.

He completed the course in three hours and seven seconds - his personal best.

Around 33,000 men andwomen from 45 countries set off from Blackheath and Greenwich, south London.